Almost a full week after Michael Brown was killed in Ferguson, Mo., the Ferguson Police Department released the name of the police officer who fired the fatal shots at the 18-year-old on August 9. We learned that Darren Wilson, a six-year veteran of the department, was the shooter, but little else about the officer or the events that took place during the shooting.

The Ferguson Police Department was significantly more forthcoming about another event of that day, Brown’s alleged theft of a box of Swisher Sweet cigarillos from a nearby convenience store. Of the 19-page report, 16 pages, including video stills, were devoted to the details of that alleged petty crime. Police say that Wilson confronted Brown after identifying him as the primary suspect in the robbery. With the Ferguson Police Department remaining tight lipped about the actual shooting, we are left with many questions.

So if Michael Brown and Dorian Johnson were suspects in a robbery, why haven’t the police questioned Johnson yet?

In their initial 16-page report, the Ferguson Police Department named Dorian Johnson as an accomplice to the robbery, which raised plenty of eyebrows given that Chris Hayes interviewed Dorian Johnson, while Ferguson PD still hasn’t. In addition, Ferguson Police Chief Tom Jackson stated this morning that Officer Wilson left “a sick call” after “dispatch gave a description of a robbery suspect over the radio.” This would lead most reasonable listeners to believe that the Officer encountered Brown thinking that he was a suspect in a robbery.

The chief changed his tune this afternoon, stating that he didn’t believe Johnson to be involved in the alleged robbery, and that the robbery and the shooting were “unrelated.” Besides the fact that Ferguson PD apparently thinks that the case of the stolen cigarillos is a big deal, there is still the small matter of Wilson being a key witness to Brown’s fatal shooting. They still have not brought him in for questioning on either matter.

Well, have the police at questioned the employees of the store that Brown allegedly stole the cigarillos from? What about other customers or witnesses?

The officer who wrote the 16-page report apparently interviewed some witnesses on-site, shortly after the alleged robbery took place.

Anonymous released some not yet authenticated audio from what they purport to be emergency dispatch. Were any men fitting the description of Brown or Wilson mentioned as robbery suspects prior to the shooting?

No. Even if the audio does not turn out to be authentic, we found it curious t that several eyewitness accounts, including that of Dorian Johnson, state that the officer in question told the two young men to get out of the street, but didn’t mention anything about a robbery or attempt to make an arrest. Wouldn’t strong arm robbery be a priority over jaywalking?

Our curiosity was later validated when Chief Jackson declared the alleged robbery and Brown’s shooting unrelated, contrary to initial reports that Officer Wilson was investigating Brown and Johnson as potential suspects. Officer Wilson had no idea Brown was a suspect in an alleged robbery, and ultimately engaged the young man over an alleged jaywalking offense.

What about an incident report? I watch a lot of movies, and cops are always talking about filling out paperwork.

Chief Jackson claims to not have the report. “I don’t have it in my possession,” Jackson said this afternoon. “Everything belongs to the county.” Six days in, the Ferguson Police Department still has not released the incident report of the officer who actually killed Michael Brown, only an incident report written by the officer who responded to the robbery, and later to the scene of the shooting after Brown had already been killed.

So what do we know now about the shooting of Michael Brown that we didn’t know yesterday?

#3 – The cop who stopped and shot Brown stopped him for jaywalking at best, without cause/Walking While Black at worst. The police chief admits the officer wasn’t aware of any crime and Brown wasn’t stopped over a convenience store robbery.

#4: “Armed Robbery” and “Shoplifting” are two different things, yet when an unarmed black male is involved, the media and critics will conflate the two despite video evidence proving te contrary.

#5 Until Black people put an end to Black on Black crime and Black on White crime, Black conservatives and conservatives don’t care what happens to us.

#6 If you are Black and get killed, your family must be prepared with photos of you in your Sunday Best, exemplary college transcripts, employment records and character witnesses to prove that you didn’t deserve to die.

#7 Black Conservatives will continue to show themselves as the worst thinkers on anything bad or good related to Black people.

@Gee believe it or not I was watching Fox News last night and one of the hosts kept asking a police chief about the policy involving confronting an unarmed man/suspect and the chief wouldn’t answer him

@Matchz Malone : was that Hannity? I watched his interview with Jackson, and assumed it would be a PR stunt to improve the FPD’s image and handling of the case. If anything, the interview further implicated the FPDs incompetence. I actually applaud Hannity for this interview.

Chris Hayes and Lawrence O’Donnel of MSNBC are worth following. The latter had a great interview of one the witnesses, who was very credible.

The Uproxx Trolls are slowly infecting TSS… they grow in numbers and vitriol with each passing day. Everybody’s got freedom of speech, but they’re gonna drive down the property value in this neighborhood by Christmas, maybe even Thanksgiving.

@Fatty Scarjuckle far from it. if everybody agreed, that would be boring. it’s 100% okay to disagree but we try to keep it respectful and on topic. No name-calling, derogatory/malicious comments. Simple stuff really and just basic respect.

The proliferation of Uproxx lames around here lately reminds me of that reverse-gentrification ep of Boondocks (“The Itis”) “We used to have a starbucks and a yoga studio…now we have a liquor store and a GOT DAMN foot locker!”

It destroys the “Gentle Giant” narrative and puts his interaction with the officer in another light. The officer claims he was pushed back into his car and the guy tried to take his gun. After seeing the video one has to wonder. The officer may not have known he was the suspect but the suspect did and may have acted aggressively.

This. The robbery is unrelated to the police stop, but it’s very relevant to describing the kind of person that Mike Brown was. It’s one thing to shoplift, but to grip up a dude and toss him away, that’s unnecessary violence. And it’s up to a grand jury to decide if he could’ve been violent with with the cop.

But everything about the shooting says this cop was VERY heavyhanded. I’m watching the 10 minute video of him laying in the street and at one point. a person describes as many as 8 gunshots being fired and separated by a few seconds. THIS statement matches with another witness who said that the cop shot Mike Brown, and when he fell the cop walked up to him and fired the kill shots.

The smoke screen starts in earnest now. The FBI is officially involved, which means that everything the Ferguson PD say and do from here should be considered the work of a very stringent defense attorney.

I learned that Ferguson Police Chief Tom Jackson, after the first peaceful night in a week, decided to release a video that he admitted had nothing to do with the cop confronting Mike Brown for the sole purpose of character assassination. I also learned that Ferguson Police Chief Tom Jackson is really, really bad at his job.

Is it character assassination when its really him in the video? I am not saying he should have been shot but the guy obviously had violent tendencies.
That little Shop owner/ cashier goes to confront him at the end of the video and he walks back up to him in a threatening way using his size to scare the much smaller man.
Its not character assassination if it shows who this guy really was, and stealing from a smaller man and acting like there is not shit he can do about it seems like that is who he was.

Yup, because people are only one way. There’s no such thing as being a multi-faceted individual.

It’s character assassination when you release as minimal info as possible about the cop, and the incident involving him using his service weapon to take a life. But ensure that you have a detailed report involving the now deceased party, who cannot defend themselves or their actions.

OK, but if you release that video and at the same time say it wasn’t why the cop confronted him, what’s the purpose of releasing the video? Why didn’t they arrest or even question the guy who was with him? Why release it on the same day, a week later, when you finally release the name of the shooter but not the incident report on the shooting?

The answer is Tom Jackson is terrible at his job and does not give a shit about the safety of the people in the town he works.

Except that it shows who he acted, is it that much of a stretch that he acted like a thug to the cop?
I don’t have a dog in this fight so I don’t really give a shit either way. I am just saying that showing a video of how someone acted minuets before the incident is not character assassination, its a real video

Last time I checked, they didn’t even do this to all the whiteboys going on shooting sprees. Instead I get to hear about what major the were in in school, and how promising their futures were.

So pardon me for my next comment.

FUCK YOU MY NIGGA. STRAIGHT UP. NO FILTER. WE ARE NOT SHOOTING TARGETS FOR NIGGAS TO PRACTICE THEIR FUCKING ACCURACY ON. IF THE NIGGA STOLE SOMETHING ITS THEFT NOT STRONG ARMED ROBBERY. THIS ONE ACT DOES NOT DEFINE WHO THIS YOUNG MAN WAS PLAIN AND SIMPLE.

You realize “character assassination” doesn’t necessarily mean slander, right? The police have been diligent about releasing absolutely no fucking information about the shooting for days, but for some reason they thought it was relevant to release this video and write a fucking novella about it. They even admit it had nothing to do with the shooting, which means the only motivation for releasing it is to diminish the victim. Is it the proximity to the shooting that blurs the line for you? Imagine, instead, that they released a video from a year ago of this kid getting in a fight at school. What would that look like to you?

The report states that he was walking TOWARD the mart that he supposedly JUST robbed (read: shoplifted) from… AFTER going home and changing out of his shorts and sandals (clearly visible from the stills) into pants and sneakers (clearly visible in every fucking shot of him lying face down in the street with blood pouring out of him)????

Thank you for breaking this mess down Greg. pretty fucked up misdirection by the FPD, but they knew by throwing that information out there they made everything a little murkier. There are some people out there that will shrug their shoulders and stop paying attention because they will think Brown was just another criminal but they point that really needs to be driven home was another unarmed black man was shot to death because of his skin color. And FPD and SLPD threw gasoline on the fire by acting like it was the 1960’s all over again, only this time police were sporting military grade weapons instead of fire hoses, dogs, and night sticks.

Having seen the video that the news keeps showing I don’t know if he’s actually robbing the store, but him pushing the store clerk is a bad look. This has probably killed off public support, and no doubt the narrative will be people rioted over a criminal. This is going to get messier no doubt.

And making videos of this kid set to sad music showing him as some sort of saint is not whatever the opposite of character assassination?
Its a real video, that kid was that person on the tape. That is who he is, or at least who he was the day he got shot.
The cop should go to jail if its found out that he broke the law, and he should get the maximum penalty. but lets not act like the other side is not trying to show this kid as a holy saint

So @JSturm you’re saying Michael Brown’s character is defined by a video that allegedly is him? and because of this video he deserved to get shot, not once, not twice, but upwards of 5 times..then his body to be laid in the middle of the street for hours for all of the community to see? I don’t think showing a picture of someone slain wrongfully, whether or not they’ve made mistakes in the past, is painting them as a “holy saint” as u made claim earlier, but showing the sorrow of a lost life. “Let he who is without sin cast the 1st stone” my man, I’m gonna go out on a limb and say that you or maybe someone you call “friend” or “bro” has made some mistakes that the media could easily use to assassinate your character too but that doesn’t define who you or they are. Truth be told, we don’t KNOW anything about Michael Brown. We only know he was unarmed and shot multiple times by an officer of the law, so again I ask, did he deserve that?

PD helped this cop leave town. This is like when the Catholic Church finds a pedophile priest and they move him around to protect him from the parents coming for his ass. Ferguson PD moved this cop into hiding…

Tho I challenge anyone to show me a time where cops were aquitted of crime then citizens hunted them down. George Hop-a-long Cassidy Zimmerman is still walking free and spewing. So is his whole family. nobody laid a glove on em.

We got cops out here that ben acquitted of killing folk, in some cases, they’re back on the job, in others they’re not. but they’re all roaming the streets living their lives.

My fear is this jerk killer cop will be the same. He’ll have a hearing, get cleared internally, then quietly resign then go about his business.

the one thing that should come out of this is Blackfolk engaging in community policing… We need to start looking out for each other, checking the knuckleheads we do have in our community and keeping a scrutinious eye on police at ALL TIMES.

And telling bigots and trolls online and off to bounce and kick rocks.

That was my one takeaway from the NMoS event yesterday BC. Out here we had someone say we ought to thank the police when they do their job etc etc. But the thing we fail to realize is that the police are not necessary, because as you said we can/should police our own communities. Sadly, this all goes back to effective dismantling the black community, ensuring their are no men around or minimal amount to do so.

I love TSS
@Black Canseco I was feeling this all week and search for the answers. I figured I can do my part IRL doing my part to spread wisdom and positivity. Be understanding and still have common sense to know right from wrong and have the gull and knowledge to do something about

a police officer just attacked the Governor for replacing local PD with state troopers. apparently the Ferguson PD are offended that they’re no longer in charge and that people have had enough of their crap.

I learned last year “Racial profiling statistics in Ferguson show” of 5,384 stops made by Police in 2013, 686 of them were white and 4,632 were black. Of 611 searches, 47 were white and 562 black. Of 521 arrests, 36 were white and 483 were black.

@leegle They have those numbers too. They’re much better at finding contraband on white drivers, which means they’re much more indiscriminate about searching black drivers. Black drivers are still arrested twice as often as white, as well.

You don’t even need to be intelligent to understand what’s going down but it’s amazing the amount of people who are in denial of what is actually going on & suggesting ‘authorities’ may have had good reason to shoot or that this black man deserved to be shot 8 times.

8 times is pure internal soul snatching hate….but them people need prayer too.

Idk if it’s just me but I think the fact that all of the trolls start to show their faces and have something negative or condescending to say on a subject like this all of a sudden is telling in and of itself.

I do love this kind of tactic but I don’t think its all on the police. The request for the information about the alleged theft a $6 pack of cigars was most likely due to media wanting to fire up controversy.

It probably could have been better handled or out right denied until the conclusion of the investigation but its a convenient bit of info to slip out to lend credibility to office dick bag’s story.

Let’s play devils advocate for a second and say that Mr Brown was not the perfect example of a citizen, that he jay walked and committed petty theft. Let’s go so far to say that the “assault” depicted in the video is indicative of the way he responds when confronted. None of this would justify the manner in which he was murdered. The burden of the officer is to up hold the law and enforce it in a meaningful and just manner.

A jaywalking offense, if even addressed by police, is a traffic violation enforced through a citation. Assuming the officers recounting of events is accurate, the fact that this became a physical altercation indicates that the officer was not pursuing his duty in a fair/just/legal manner. Even if we are to believe that Mr. Brown made an attempt at the officer weapon and was subsequently shot during the struggle it would clearly indicate to the officer that he was in fact unarmed. When the office choose to shoot the fleeing “suspect” dead inspite of his knowledge that the Mr Brown was unarmed makes this murder in spite of anything that Mr Brown may or may not have done.

Clearly even if we are to assume the worst about Michael Brown, and I do not personally believe the worst, officer dick bag still used excessive force and choose to murder a young man because he felt he could get away with it.

Thank you. I have old peoe racist family who are believing all of Fox News reports and forgetting that deep down, no matter what they say, an officer emptied a weapon into an unarmed suspect and didn’t follow procedure or basic protocol or even god damned sense.

I’ve been doing nothing but absorbing news on this from what I believe to be are the most credible sources so I’m too drained to comment on this at the moment….what I will say is, I was really really disappointed in my wife when she said “but they have video of him roughing up a clerk and stealing from a store”. She wasn’t saying that was at all justification, but the fact that she blindly bought that bit of conveniently timed character assassination released by a defensive police department trying their damndest to cover up a murder without even questioning if it was even him…that was depressing. This week has been depressing. Fuck humanity. I’m gonna move out into the woods and appropriate Bon Iver’s cabin.

When this pig finally speaks, he talk about being in fear of his life, there will be photos of him holding black babies and being sassy with black ladies at Bingo. We will continue to gloss over the fact that this man was killed like a rabid dog. I anticipate losing lots of white friends over this, simply not seeing the lack of humanity we are being shown. If he was a criminal, he should of gotten due process under the law.

Until cops are prosecuted for their actions more and aren’t being moved to another county like catholic priest are moved around. Maybe things will change. We know its a hard job, but can’t go around shooting unarmed people.

What a lotta white folks don’t understand is that ultimately, this is bigger than Mike Brown.

Ferguson is actually a training exercise for militarized police & nationwide martial law. This was all planned from the jump. Mike Brown’s murder sparked this but ultimately, it’s a smokescreen for a much & more complex bigger operation, which is why you see police flipping out across America. They needed a reason to try out their tanks & shiny new weapons. Who better to run drills on than black ppl? Nobody’s gonna care.

From what I understand from ppl living in Ferguson, the police were right across the street when ppl were looting & didn’t stop them. They wanted it to go down, so White America can sympathize with the pigs & condone more brutality. Racial division is also a part of this bigger plan because it keeps Americans from unifying against this upcoming Martial Law.

As this escalates, you’ll see crazier & deadlier weapons rolled out. Don’t be surprised if you eventually see drones hovering over Ferguson. You smug white folks who wanna talk about looting & shoplifting don’t care now… but when those guns, tanks & tear gas canisters are pointed at your white ass… then you’ll understand.

Tanks and unnecessary force? Yep
Denial of basic constitutional right to free speech? Yep
Attempted suppression of information? Yep
Killing American citizens and denying due process? Looks like it…

Conspiracy theorist are having a field day with this. With all of the evidence that proves that the government is using counter-surveillance against its own citizens, the last thing this summer needed was everything that Ferguson turned out to be. The war on terror is coming home.